Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap Reviews
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a really solid retro release, and if you are new to the series, it could provide a decent starting point for your new retro adventures. If you're more into the HD graphics, it's a solid platformer that gets by on teasing your intuition and challenging players to find the best path forward.
Creating a remake, what a difficult mission ! On the one hand, you have to keep the core of the game intact, and in the other hand, you have to put it in the modern era. Lizarcube's team did it brilliantly by keeping the strengths of the original game almost in its entirety and by giving it a more pleasant aesthetic. With its old-school gameplay and its beautiful graphics, Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a nostalgic journey which could be enjoyed by the older players and the younger ones. At least, if losing and starting over isn't a problem for you.
Review in French | Read full review
I'm normally the type of player who will for sure choose the 8 or 16-bit option, but the modern art and music in Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap were so good, that I played 95% of the game full modern.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Curse is simply wonderful. Not only does it keep the spirit of the original, it proves that you don't need to overthink and recreate a formula that works just as well in 2017 as it did in 1989. Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Curse is a must buy.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a ruthlessly faithful remake of the Master System classic that boasts a dramatic and beautiful audiovisual makeover. The game itself is still very enjoyable with a world map that's fun to work through and a lean Metroidvania structure that introduces new ideas right to the end. The controls are quite loose, which can lead to some frustration, but by and large this is a wonderful recreation that both fans and newcomers will enjoy.
Technically great remake, that didn't age well in terms of playability. For fans of the genre and historically interested people nevertheless recommendable.
Review in German | Read full review
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is everything a remake should be: a thoroughly modern yet completely reverent update that preserves the soul of its inspiration for a new generation of gamers to enjoy.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a dream come true for all the fans of the original Master System classic, Lizard Cube gave us a new standard on how to make classic games remakes.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap sets a new standard for what remakes should include, and I hope future ones can follow in these footsteps with projects that are just as passionate. While it can't escape a few of the original title's annoyances, it is still an engaging and enjoyable experience for 2D-platformer and series fans, and will most likely garner the franchise some new fans, who will come into contact with the series for the first time with this game like I did. I never owned the Sega Master System, but I am elated that I got to experience this all-but-forgotten gem.
Lizardcube has both made The Dragon's Trap more vibrant and set a fascinating standard for game remakes.
1989's Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap could have felt way out of its league here in 2017, but the impressive job that LizardCube has done updating it for our modern era has really given it a second life. It's a great retro-meets-future gaming experience marred occasionally by elements that just don't work as well all these years later.
Lizardcube did an amazing job, showing so much love and care for this - still enjoyable - classic. The way the french team allows us to play it with lovely and modern visuals and music just makes us hungry for more of this kind of remasters.
Review in French | Read full review
As a remake of 1989's game of the year, Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a brilliant and beautiful recreation. The SEGA classic has been honored by developers who were clearly a fan of the original game and there's a lot of heart that shows through the hand-drawn visuals and classical instrument soundtrack. There are some inherent flaws that have been present for 28 years which don't explain some of the more vague complexities, and without the nostalgia factor to highlight the classic, it could seem like just another indie metroidvania — albeit an exceptionally exquisite one — but Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a great example of a game made with the kind of passion that sometimes gets lost in the massive productions of modern gaming.
It's clear that the team at Lizardcube are massive fans of the original Wonder Boy III, and that affection translates into what is without a shadow of a doubt the definitive version of a game which has previously been ported to the Game Gear and PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16. The new visuals are sumptuous and the soundtrack - which uses traditional instrumentation rather than computer-generated audio - proves just how catchy the original tunes were. Despite the passing of the years The Dragon's Trap remains a perfectly-pitched non-linear action adventure which must surely rank as one of the best of the 8-bit era. Its biggest failing is the fact that like the Master System original, it can be completed in the space of an evening. Still, that evening will be one of the most enjoyable you can possibly spend with your Switch, making this a recommended purchase regardless.
Still, in a world of HD rehashing and the seemingly obligatory impulse to re-render old games with the latest in photorealistic graphics tech, it warms my heart to witness the stylistic human touch of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap. It's a splendid homage, a playable history exercise, and an unexpected touchpoint for the expressive potential of hand-drawn animation in 2017.
Almost perfectly remastered classic from the past. Must-have for fans of the platformers and metroidvania-like games. The time has come to take on some dragons.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a delightful trip down memory lane. The art for the characters and environments are absolutely astounding, but with a dated gameplay style, it's difficult to say this remake is fully realized. Yes, purists will love that The Dragon's Trap is a nearly 100% replica of the original with updated art, but I feel as though the love given to the art of the game should have been given to the gameplay as well.
Hadyn received a digital copy of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap from DotEmu for review.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a monster of a remake. It gives a fairly forgotten gem a profound buff to let its inherent charm shine through even brighter with gorgeous artwork and music. Its animal-altering mechanic and hoards of enemies guarantee that you're in for a good, fun challenge, and while its platforming and boss fights may not have the same impact, it's no wonder why the developer saw Wonder Boy fit to return.
With gorgeously rendered animated visuals, an instrumental recreation of the 8-bit soundtrack, and some truly compelling Metroidvania mechanics, Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is just as good a game today as it was decades ago.